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Overview

This brick, three-floor commercial building had Romanesque details and was one of the new type of "fireproof" office buildings constructed in Seattle's central business district, Pioneer Square, after the devastating Fire of 06/06/1889. The Washington Territory Investment Company Building was one of the earliest works by the Seattle architectural firm of Saunders and Houghton, whose architects migrated to WA State from Pasadena, CA, around the time of the fire.

Building History

William Elder Bailey (born 02/10/1860 in Harrisburg, PA) provided the new architectural firm of Saunders and Houghton its first commission with the Washington Territory Investment Company Building just after the Great Seattle Fire of 06/06/1889. Bailey, who had arrived in Seattle recently himself, provided local legal and investment advice for out-of-town investors seeking to make money in the new, post-fire environment. His investment firm was located in this three-story Romanesque Revival building, done in "fireproof" masonry. The first floor, like most in Pioneer Square, had retail storefronts on its first floor, and offices above. Third story windows were trimmed by arches. Corbelling above the arches led to a noticeable parapet that featured 2 gabled elements highlighting the building's bays that contained main entrances to offices. Saunders and Houghton emphasized the ground floor entryways by trimming them with bulky columns with elaborate capitals done in stone of a color contrasting to the rest of the building.

Ohio businessman John Hoge (1840-1917) bought this building in late 1904 and renamed it for himself. This Hoge Building #1 predated the much taller (18-story) skyscraper that went up on the site in 1909-1911. Hoge grew wealthy selling Star Soap, a product of Schultz & Company, a firm he owned with his cousin, Robert Doster Schultz (1839-1899). The firm was particularly effective at marketing, devising novel sales gimmicks to gain attention for their products. (One product, Gold Soap, attracted buyers by offering one gold dollar randomly placed in each case.) Robert Schultz's son, William Doster Schultz (d. 1921), sold the business to Proctor and Gamble for $846,000 in 1903. John Hoge lived in Zanesville during his life and never moved to the West Coast.

John Hoge was the younger brother of telegraph operator James D. Hoge, Sr., (1835-1904), whose son, James D. Hoge, Jr., (1871-1929), would relocate to Seattle and expand the family's real estate and banking investments there.

The Washington Territory Investment Company Building served as the third home of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer newspaper, published by Leigh S.J. Hunt (until 1894) and later by James D. Hoge, Jr. James D. Hoge, Jr.'s sister, Bessie D. Hoge (1862-1945), would marry Frederic James Grant, Sr., (1862-1894), who also served as an Editor of the Post-Intelligencer. The Post-Intelligencer was forced to find another home when the Hoge Family tore the building down to erect a much taller skyscraper on the site.

Building Notes

This site on the northwest corner of 2nd Avenue and Cherry Street, was on property first owned by Carson Dobbins Boren (1824-1912), who made a land claim here in 1852; he sold the corner parcel to William Nathaniel Bell (1817-1887) in 1855, who erected his own two-story clapboard house there soon after. William Elder Bailey's Washington Territory Investment Company Building stood here from c. 1890-1907; it was renamed the Hoge Building between c. 1907-1909. It was then replaced by the early skyscraper, the Hoge Building #2 (1909-1911) which still stood in 2021.

The architects of the building, Saunders and Houghton, maintained their office in Room 29 of the Washington Territory Investment Company Building from 1889-1891.

The Union Savings and Trust Company occupied space in the former Washington Territory Investment Company Building, later renamed the "Hoge Building," after John Hoge bought it in 1904. James D. Hoge, Jr., co-founded the Union Savings and Trust Company in 1903.

Alteration

New signage was put on the Washington Territory Investment Company Building when John Hoge purchased it. Two signs at the parapet line read "Hoge Building" on the 2nd Avenue and Cherry Street facades.

Demolition

The Washington Territory Investment Company Headquarters Building was torn down c. 1909, when it was known as the Hoge Building. The Hoge Building #2 was built on its site between 1909 and 1911.

PCAD id: 14984